Tuesday, April 27, 2010

PostSecret















Frank Warren is the Most Trusted Stranger, the creator of PostSecret (the uninitiated should check out the links at the end of this post). Last night he came to speak at CMU, to share stories that were funny and heartbreaking.

People lined up at the microphones to tell their secrets. I have preserved some of these secrets in my copy of Confessions on Life, Death, and God, the new PostSecret book which Corinne bought me as an early birthday present. There was a postcard in my copy. It says I'M PRETENDING. It was sent in December 2006 from Boston.

I saw Cassia there, briefly. And I got to talk to Frank. He signed my book.

Afterwards Corinne and I stole the advertisement posters from the UC bulletin boards to keep as souvenirs.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Things Biology Has Taught Me:

Firstly, never be afraid to acknowledge your own limitations.


Secondly, make sure you are familiar with the various classifications of zombies so that you may address them properly when they take over the world.


And thirdly, all of the masses of scientific knowledge available today may be accredited to the consistent demonstration of one indisputable truth:

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Search Stories!

Go to www.youtube.com/searchstories to make one of your own! It takes about a minute. What an awesome idea. Thanks, Google, even though it's a marketing ploy. I'm sold.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

CMU I ♥ YOU

Tonight I went to the CMU I YOU film festival, held under the big tent as part of Carnival. Terri invited me because she co-directed one of the films.

All of the films were made by CMU students in the film club, based somehow on the theme of love, and they were varying degrees of good. Most were well done enough to be appreciated without being so amazing as to be scary. Some were a bit dull, including one about a boy who has a crush on a girl, so he writes her a note and leaves it in her text book but then - gasp! - she comes back with her boyfriend. Sadness.

But my favorite was called Untitled. It was the only one called Untitled. Figures.

Untitled begins with a girl standing against a wall. You can only see her face. The picture is black and white, and her eyes look like two bright white holes. She stares at the camera for a while and then begins to speak, but you don't hear what she's saying, just creepy music. The rest of the video is startling and disconcerting overlays of streets and lights and colors and the profiles of two faces moving in and out of each other, always layered over the girl's face as she talks and talks about something you can't hear. At the end she falls silent.

Chemists was artistic and well done visually, a lot of wide shots of stairs and walls. Tale of Two Majors was a rather amusing sort of Romeo and Juliet story about a drama student dating a CS major. Map Time was a cute and well done animated piece about some book characters fighting over a female tennis player in a magazine. Morning After was a narrated story about an apathetic couple set to artistic shots around campus.

I froze, but I enjoyed the films.


Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Thursday, April 1, 2010

我去年去中国旅行

Last Year I Traveled To China:

My (tentative) contribution to the Polyglot Language Journal.

It took a lot of editing by the SA.

Some numbers / dates may be off, I wasn't particular.


我是一年级的学生,从纽约来。去年一月分,一个中国老师从北京来到我的学校,她叫侯老师。她给我们介绍中国。她也教给我们几句中文:“你好” 和 “我爱你”。两日后,她回到北京去。二月分,我们的校长说侯老师想请学生去中国看她的学校。我很想去。我问我的朋友们,有谁想不想跟我去中国。我的好朋友 Mara 说她想去。我们问我们的父母我们可不可以去。他们说我们可以去,我们非常高兴!


I am a Freshman from New York. Last January, a Chinese teacher from Beijing came to my school, Ms. Hou. She talked about China. She also taught us some Chinese phrases: "Hello" and "I love you." After two days, she returned to Beijing. In February, our principal told us Ms. Hou had invited students to go to China and see her school. I really wanted to go. I asked all of my friends if they wanted to go with me. My friend Mara said she did. We asked our parents if we could go. They said we could. We were really happy!


四月十六日,我的家人送我到机场。Mara, 我,还有七个学生和五个老师一起从纽约坐飞机去中国。飞机非常大,旅程很久,总共坐了十四个小时。我们先去咸阳。我们晚上跟咸阳的市长吃晚饭,然后我跟我的接待妈妈见面。她和我一起走到她的公寓。那儿她给我介绍了我的接待爸爸和妹妹。妈妈会说英文,是英文老师。妹妹也会说一点儿英文,在学校学英文。爸爸不会说英文,可是他给了我一杯绿茶,欢迎我来。我在我妹妹的卧室睡觉。明天早上,妹妹去学校,妈妈和我去公园。公园非常漂亮!接待家晚上送了我一些礼物。我妹妹送了我我的名字:牟俊丽。


On April 15th, my family dropped me off at the airport. Mara and I, and seven other students and five teachers took a plane together from New York to China. The plane was very big and the flight very long; it took fourteen hours. We first went to Xianyang. That night we ate dinner with the Xianyang mayor, then I met my host mother. She and I walked to her apartment together. There she introduced me to my host father and sister. My mother could speak English; she is an English teacher. My sister could also speak a little English; she studies it in school. My father could not speak English, but he gave me a cup of green tea to welcome me. I slept in my sister's room. The next morning, my sister went to school and my mother and I went to the park. The park was very beautiful! That night my host family gave me gifts. My sister gave me my name: JunLi Mu.


我们在咸阳住了四天。我们去看了兵马俑,还去了两个学校,山西大学和咸阳师范学院。学生欢迎我们来中国。他们想给我们写电子邮件,我们就给了他们我们的电子邮件地址。我们在咸阳认识了很多新朋友。


We stayed in Xianyang four days. We saw the Terra Cotta Warriors and also visited two schools, Shaanxi University and Xianyang Normal University. The students welcomed us to China. They wanted to send us emails, so we gave them our email addresses. In Xianyang we got to know many new friends.


四月二十日,我们从咸阳坐火车到北京。然后,我们坐公共汽车到侯老师的学校,北京市十一学校。学校很大,有很多教室,也有很多学生。学生们都非常友好。我的接待妹妹会说英文,说得很好。我们谈到了学校,功课,书,电影,和我们的国家。我很喜欢中国,妹妹想来美国上大学。我的接待妈妈开车带我们去金源时代购物中心吃饭, 我们吃了饺子,也喝了汤 。然后,我们去买东西。我在北京去了万里长城, 天安门广场, 紫禁城,颐和园,和天坛。之些地方都非常漂亮。我不想回家。

On April 20th, we took a train from Xianyang to Beijing. Then we took a bus to Ms. Hou's school, Beijing National Day School. The school was really big, with many classrooms and many students. The students were all very friendly. My host sister could speak English very well. We talked about school, homework, books, movies, and our home countries. I really like China, and my sister wants to come to America for college. My host mother drove us to the Golden Resources Shopping Mall to eat. We ate dumplings and soup. Then we went shopping. In Beijing I saw the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and the Temple of Heaven. All of these places were very beautiful. I did not want to return home.


回来后,我想念我中国家人。我在大学,我学中文为了以后能和他们说中文。我常常给他们写电子邮件。我想很快回中国。


After I got back, I really missed my Chinese family. In college, I'm studying Chinese so I can speak Chinese with them. I often send them emails. I want to go back to China soon.